


The side view

by Bablefisk



Series: Small World [3]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M, more tags to come
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-30 01:50:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20438186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bablefisk/pseuds/Bablefisk
Summary: The Warblers get in an accident and Kurt an Hunter try to figure themselves out in it all





	1. Snapshots

**Author's Note:**

> Guys, I threw up this pretty hastily, I will come back and fix the tags and probably edit the chapters a bit, but I ran out of time to do this properly. This is a continuation of Small World, but can be read on it's own as well. It used to be part of the main story, but I realized the feel of it was far to different, so I needed to split them up.

Hunter felt like utter crap. It honestly felt like he was dying. The world around him was blurry and unclear and he couldn’t tell if he was lying down or just completely out of it. He knew Sebastian was somewhere close, only because he had heard his voice just seconds ago. That was also all he knew.  
*

Kurt stretched as he finished up the blog post he had been writing for Vogue. He was glad he could do a lot of his work from home, so working late didn’t have to mean getting home closer to midnight. He packed away his laptop, and went to put away his empty tea-cup. As he rose, a feeling of dread came over him, and he looked around in confusion. Dread? Why would he feel dread? He had finished all he needed with school and work, there was no need to be anxious. With a confused frown, he shook it off and continued on his way to the kitchen.  
*

Sebastian felt his way along the upended chairs. He had been sitting next to Hunter on the bus, but in the chaos they had lost each other. Had they crashed? Maybe they had crashed. His head wasn’t working properly, and he felt a little out of it. Wait, was that a seat in front of him? He reached out a hand and noticed that his hand somehow matched the color of the red seat.  
*

“Dad?”  
“Kurt? What’s going on? Why are you calling so late?” Burt’s voice thankfully didn’t sound like he had been asleep.  
“I…I don’t know. I’ve had this feeling of dread the last half hour, and I just had to check. You’re all right?”  
“Yes, Kurt, I’m fine. As is Carol and Finn. Have you checked with Hunter?”  
Kurt loved his dad for only sounding worried.  
“I talked to him an hour ago, he should be fine. They were on their way home from a school meet.”

*  
Hunter crawled along the floor of the bus, hoping to find someone in the chaos. It seemed his eyes had been affected in some way, and he had to feel his way. There was sounds everywhere, and he thought he could hear someone scream in the cacophony of noise. Was Kurt here too? He remembered Kurt’s voice, but couldn’t really connect the dots properly. He didn’t remember Kurt being there, yet he still was.  
*

Kurt couldn’t sleep. He had been tossing and turning for an hour, and he just couldn’t fall asleep. The dread wouldn’t leave him alone. With a sigh, he sat up. Maybe he needed to check in with Hunter again, just to know he was okay. A quick look at the clock told him it was way too late for that, and with a sigh, he lay down again.  
*

There were lights. And then people. And suddenly he was lifted up and carried somewhere. He thought someone might be saying his name, talking to him, but he couldn’t be sure. There was a feeling of something hard along his back, and the hands letting him go. Above him was a night sky, and the stars slowly vanished and his world turned completely dark.  
*

The phone rang and Kurt sat up in surprise. It was 2.25 in the morning, and he looked in confusion at his phone for a while, looking at the name, before he could gather his wits to answer.  
“Mr. Clarington?”


	2. Hospital

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I'm not sure I like this chapter, but it's how it came out.  


Hunter woke up in a daze, everything moving rapidly around him, his head not quite able to follow along. Before he could remember what was going on, his eyes closed again, and the world went silent.

**

Kurt tapped his foot where he sat in the waiting room, leaning forward on his knees. The room around him were filled to the brink with mostly people he didn’t know and was steadily filling up. Hunters parents and sister were the few he actually knew, and the four of them had mostly kept silent the last couple of hours.

The phone call with Mr. Clarington had been grueling, though at least it had explained his dread. Kurt had thrown on some clothes, and then spent his emergency credit card that his dad had insisted on him having on a cab to the hospital. He had had the mind to throw together a few things before leaving, having been in this situation a few times by now, so he had some simple snacks and his kindle with him, though so far only the snacks had been in use.

From what little they knew about the situation, it seemed that the bus the Warblers were on had been forced off the road by a drunk driver, and had crashed, flipping over. The Claringtons had been taken aside when they showed up and had later told Kurt that Hunter was currently in surgery, but that’s all they had been told. Sebastian’s parents had come over, and the four parents had hugged and talked, and it seemed Sebastian was currently waiting to be operated on, which had parents had obviously taken as a good sign, thinking they would have worked on him quicker if it had been more critical.

Kurt didn’t know. He just knew that he was afraid and tired. He wanted to know that the people he cared about were all fine. He wished his dad was here, or even Finn. Someone who knew him better than his boyfriends’ parents. He had texted his dad, Rachel and Santana to let them know where he was, but he hadn’t wanted to wake any of them in the middle of the night.

The hours in the waiting room stretched out until it seemed like they had been there for days. In reality, it was four hours, something Kurt only realized when his dad called him at seven, when he got up to get the garage going in the mornings.

Kurt quickly got up and moved towards the doors leading outside, picking up as the sliding doors opened.

“Hey dad.”

“Kurt, how are you? How’s Hunter?”

Kurt could feel the tears he had been suppressing all night rise up at the sound of his dads’ voice.

“He’s still in surgery, we don’t know yet. I’m... as good as I can be, I guess.”

Burt sighed over the line, and Kurt could hear the familiar sound of his dad taking off his baseball cap and stroking his head.

“I wish I could come out there and be with you, but there is just no way I’m getting away right now. How’s it being at the hospital?”

Kurt shrugged a little, knowing what his dad was really asking.

“It’s okay, I’m not alone. Hunters family is here, as is all the families of the Warblers. I’m okay, dad, just scared for Hunter.”

“Okay. But you call the minute you know what is happening, okay? I’ll keep my phone on me through the day so you can reach me.”

“I will, dad.”

With a last few words of goodbye, they hung up, and Kurt took a few steading breaths of the chilled New York air. The nights had slowly been getting warmer as they properly moved into spring, but still had that slight winter chill to it before the sun peaked up and started warming the city.

With another deep breath, Kurt turned around and walked in again.

**

Another couple of hours passed before things started happening. A doctor came for one family, and Kurt could see them tearfully but happy moving down a hallway. Another family vanished without Kurt noticing. Then a doctor came out and called for Clarington. Kurt had been unsure if he should follow along or not, but Mrs. Clarington gave him little choice as she took his hand and dragged him with her.

“Yes, Hunter Clarington?” Mr. Claringtons’ voice was shaky and hoarse as he talked for the first time in hours.

“Good, yes. We have been operating on him for the last four hours, he had some complications, but all in all it was pretty straight forward, and he is in recovery now.”

Kurt felt the stone in his stomach finally lift and sighed in relief. Natalie spoke up.

“So, he’s going to be fine?”  


The Doctor nodded and smiled at them. “Yes, he’ll be perfectly fine. He’s going to need a couple of weeks to get back on his feet, for his wounds to heal and the stitches taken out, but in general, he should be able to walk out of here in a couple of days.”  
  
They moved down a long corridor, the doctor stopping about half way down by door 313. “He’s still sedated, but you can all go in and see him if you want.”

Then he opened the door, and they walked in. Hunter was laying still on one of the beds, separated from the other three beds in the room by a curtain. He was looking a little pale and a little banged up, but otherwise he didn’t look much worse than Kurt had imagined. Wherever they had operated seemed to be hidden under the covers of the bed, and Kurt was pretty sure they hadn’t even been close to the heart, as he could still remember several machines his dad had been connected to that he couldn’t see here. So with another sigh, Kurt found enough chairs for the four of them and sank down at the foot-end of the bed, letting himself really relax.

**

The next few days were tiring in every possible way. The police were trying to figure out what had happened and were looking for the car that had forced them off the road. The hospital was still full of people coming and going, but over half the Warblers seemed to have made it with mostly scrapes and bruises. Most of the people who had operations had also gone home after three days, which quieted things down a fair amount. Hunter got to go home on the morning of day four and was going to stay in New York with his parents for a couple of weeks before going back to Dalton.

Kurt had been in the hospital whenever he could, but after ditching school the first day, Hunter had sent him off, asking him to at least try to concentrate on school. Kurt would have much preferred to just stay with Hunter, but he also knew how hard NYADA would come down on him for not going to classes, so he got up every morning to go. He spent the evenings in the hospital, doing his homework there, as well as doing any kind of work he could for Vogue without actually being present. When Hunter went home, his parents invited Kurt to move in with them while Hunter was there, and Kurt didn’t hesitate to take the offer.

While most people came out of the crash with only scars and bruises, Sebastian, Jeff and Nick included, a few people weren’t as lucky. The driver of the bus had died in the crash. One of the younger students had been trapped beneath a seat, slowly crushing his lungs, and after his operation, he had fallen into a coma that he had yet to wake up from. Kurt hated himself for being happy that neither were people he knew, but he hadn’t been able to help the feeling of relief when the two names had been released.

The funeral for the driver was a week after the accident, and those of the boys that could get there, went to support the family. Hunter did not go, as his body still needed another week or so of rest before it was advised to travel those hours to Westerville in a car. Sebastian did go, and from what Kurt had heard when the two boys talked after, it had been a somber affair, with the drivers’ wife and three teenaged daughters showing so clearly what had been lost when their father died.

**

A week into living with the Claringtons, Kurt was going crazy. He loved being able to take care of his boyfriend when he needed him, and frankly, the time with Hunter was mostly nice. The problem was his family. Kurt was used to being around people, with Rachel and Santana as roommates. But he was also used to time alone, time just for himself. If nothing else, he was used to time with other people than the ones he lived with. He had skipped going to the two Apples rehearsals that week, but in hindsight, he wished he had gone, just to be somewhere else, do something else.

Hunter’s family was very, very nice. They also didn’t understand the meaning of privacy. Or, Natalie didn’t. If it wasn’t his parents wanting to talk about how he thought Hunter was doing, it was Natalie wanting to talk about everything else. It was like his parents were trying to make Kurt feel included in the care of Hunter, while his sister tried to distract Kurt from the whole thing. So whenever Kurt tried to pull back to the room next to Hunter’s for a break, they always seemed to find him first and pulled him in. In the end, Kurt wasn’t able to keep up with his schoolwork, and something had to change.

He was getting ready for bed when he finally had the guts to talk to his boyfriend about it.

“Hunter? I think I need to stay at school after hours tomorrow. I have a lot of homework and stuff I need to get done.”

Hunter looked at him in confusion.

“Why don’t you just do it here?”

Kurt turned towards him with a small sigh.

“Honestly? I can’t get it done here. Your family is very nice and well meaning, but... anytime I try to get going with something, they pull me into conversation. I’ve even tried excusing myself, but it doesn’t work, and I’m just not direct enough to make it any clearer. I was thinking an afternoon or two this week in the study hall would take care of it, and that way I can be completely present when I am here.”

Hunter closed his eyes and sighed.

“Yeah, I get it. They can be a bit much. I’ll miss you, but it makes sense.”

Kurt could hear the little sad tilt to the other boys’ voice, and he wanted to just drop the whole thing. But one of the things he had learned in therapy was that to take care of others, he needed to take care of himself as well.

So with a kiss on the cheek, and a goodnight, Kurt went to his guestroom and planned for the day after, packing up everything he would need.


End file.
